We scarcely need more evidence in support of the claim that sustainable development is one of the major challenges for human societies in the 21st century. Global warming, growing scarcity of non-renewable energy resources, loss of biodiversity, water supply shortages, the long-term degradation of ecosystems, dwindling social cohesion, decreasing social mobility, abating democratic structures, increasingly standardised knowledge concepts and media landscapes, overstrained education systems as well as the health and poverty problems associated with these issues represent the most important growing risks for human societies and their economies.